" The smallness and fragility of our lives is met with the cold indifference not only of the distant stars and planets, which we can rightly think of as virtually eternal in contrast to ourselves, but of the more immediate "outer" world of the farm itself.." (pg 89).

"The authority I bring to these readings is that of my own background and experience.... One of the pleasures of literary scholarship lies in encountering different and even conflicting interpretation" (Foster 105)